When I felt a student was giving me his or her best effort, I had great patience no matter how slow they progressed.  But if I felt a student was doing just enough to get by, I had zero tolerance.  Interestingly, until I was in college, I was the student who was very good at doing only what I had to do to get by.  That all changed however when I met my freshman English teacher.  My roommate, who was in the same class, would get papers back with minor errors marked and get an A.  I would get papers back with nothing marked on it except a B.  When I took both papers in to the teacher and asked him to explain it to me, he simply looked at me and said, “When you deserve an A, you will get it.”

You see, he understood that I was smart enough to do what it took to get an A….AND….that I wasn’t doing my best work.  He challenged me that day.  He wanted me to understand that just enough is NOT enough.  It was an important lesson I needed to learn and fortunately, he was willing to help me learn it.  Moving forward, each paper was better than the previous and still, I received a B.  This wasn’t an English lesson.  This, was a life lesson.  One I may have never learned if not for this insightful and caring teacher.

Today, no every day, I encourage you to challenge your students to learn to give their best effort all of the time.  They don’t need teachers who pass them just because they showed up and did the work.  They need teachers who care about them enough to expect and demand the very best.  Oh, I am sure you will get some push back from some kids and perhaps their parents, but you owe it to your students to teach them this valuable lesson.  Just sayin’!

Make Today a Magnificent Day!

Gary L Rupert